Mark
Donohoe
Martin
Jones
Duncan
H.
Updates
30/01/1999
1.01.00

# Display Setup Handbook

## Introduction

KDisplay is a display setup utility. Running `kcmdisplay` gives a tab dialog with five pages dealing with different aspects of the desktop display.

1. The desktop Background.

2. The Screen Saver.

3. The desktop Color Scheme.

4. The desktop Fonts.

5. The desktop Style choices.

Running `kcmdisplay -init` simply applies your preferences to the desktop.

## Tutorial

## Background

The Background setup dialog is comprised of four sections:

1. Desktop selection and Name.

2. The background Preview Monitor.

3. The background Color.

4. The background Wallpaper.

At the bottom of the screen the selection Dock into the panel allows you to select whether an icon for the Background Display Setting dialog is docked into the Panel (this provides quick access to the Display Settings menu, and also allows stepping through changing background sequences when the "Random" background mode is selected).

Also at the bottom of the screen is a slider allowing the memory Cache size used by the display to be adjusted.

### Name

The top left Desktop box lists the currently-configured desktops by their assigned names. Click on a name to select the corresponding desktop to be configured. Click on Rename to change the assigned name which appears on the Panel's desktop selection buttons.

If you wish to configure a common background for all Desktops, make the Common Background selection.

### Preview Monitor

This is a minature representation of your display background, using the current settings. To apply these settings to your display, press the Apply button to continue using the KDE display setup utility, or the Ok button to apply your changes and quit.

Note: Pressing Ok or Apply applies changes made in all of the display setup modules.

### Background Color

The display background can be filled with a single color or with a color gradient.

Click the One Color button to fill the background with a single color. The background color can be changed by clicking on the colored box which shows the currently-selected color. This will display a color selection dialog from which you may select a new background color.

When you are happy with your color selection, press Ok in the color selection dialog. The color will be updated in the colored box (and in the Preview Monitor, provided no Wallpaper is selected).

To fill the background with a color gradient or pattern, click the Two Color button. A second colored box will appear. Click on this box to select the second color. Now click on the Setup button to choose how to blend the two colors. A dialog and Preview box will appear. You may choose to progressively blend the colors from top to bottom of the screen, from right to left, or in a pattern selected from the list shown. You will see a preview of the choice you make before you apply it. Click OK or Cancel to leave this dialog.

A blend of the two colors uses only 8 colors, leaving plenty free for other applications. However, it requires an image the size of your display to be maintained in memory.

### Wallpaper

The wallpaper is an image displayed in the background (root window) of your display. To change the wallpaper displayed, select one from the list or click the Browse button and select an image. If wish to use a One Color or Two Color background, choose `No Wallpaper`.

Choose from the Arrangement list to select how the wallpaper image is applied to the desktop: various tiling, mirroring, or scaling schemes are possible, and their effects may be seen in the Preview box.

You may also select Random which causes a random sequence of backgrounds to be displayed, changing after a specified time interval. Click on the Setup button to select the sequence of backgrounds that are chosen from. The sequence will be sampled randomly, unless you make the selection that the sequence is sampled in order. The Timer Delay box allows you to set the interval in seconds between changes. If the icon for the background display settings is docked in the Panel, and Random is selected, you can click on the icon to cause the next scheduled background change to occur immediately.

If the option Pick files from directory is selected, the backgrounds wil be chosen from the set of wallpaper files in the selected directory entered in the box that opens. If this option is not selected, they will be chosen from a user-created sequence of backgrounds listed in the main box.

- To add an entry to this user-created sequence, click on Add; this will add a highlighted `No Wallpaper` entry for the currently-selected Color background from the main Background Display settings screen to the sequence. Click on an item in the sequence to highlight it. To replace this highlighted entry, go back to the main Background Display settings screen (without closing the Random mode setup screen) and deselect Random. Whatever Wallpaper (including `No Wallpaper`) you now select will replace the highlighted entry in the Random Mode background sequence. Click on Delete to remove the highlighted item from the Random Mode backgrounds sequence. In this way, you can construct any sequence of backgrounds you wish. Click on OK when you are satisfied with it. Don't forget to reselect Random in the main Background Display Setting screen to activate your Random Mode backgrounds.

Displaying wallpaper requires that the image be kept in memory. If you are low on memory, using a small, tiled image or none at all is recommended. Note that scaling or centering a small image still requires an image the size of your display to be maintained in memory.

## Screen Saver

The Screen Saver setup dialog is comprised of three sections:

1. The screen saver Preview Monitor.

2. The global screen saver Settings.

3. The choice of Screen Saver program to run.

### Preview Monitor

This is a minature representation of your screen saver, using the current settings. To apply these settings to your display, press the Apply button to continue using the KDE display setup utility or Ok button to apply your changes and quit.

In the corners of this monitor are four grey boxes. These boxes indicate what action to take if the cursor is left in one of the corners for more than 5 seconds. The options are:

- Ignore - take no action

- Save - invoke the screen saver

- Lock - lock the screen

To select an option, place the mouse over a grey box, and right-click; make your choice in the dialog box that opens. If the Save or Lock option is selected, this is shown in the corresponding grey box: ("s" = Save, "l" = Lock).

Note: Pressing Ok or Apply applies changes made in all of the display setup modules.

### Settings

Enter the time (in minutes) without activity to wait before the screen saver is invoked.

Checking Requires Password will make the screen saver prompt you for your password before restoring the screen.

Check Show password as stars for the screensaver password box to show the number of characters typed.

Priority sets the priority of the screen saver (the "nice" value of its process) relative to other running processes.

### Screen Saver

Choose the particular screen saver program that runs from the list. The working screen saver will be shown in minature in the preview monitor. (`No screensaver` is the default.)

Most screen savers have settings which can be changed by clicking the Setup... button. This will display a dialog specific to the currently selected screen saver.

The Test button runs the screen saver immediately, full screen, for a short interval.

## Color Scheme

The Color Scheme setup dialog is comprised of three sections:

1. The color scheme Preview.

2. The current Widget Color.

3. The available Color Schemes.

(A "Widget" is a commonly-used programmer's term for referring to User Interface elements such as buttons, menus, and scroll bars )

### Preview

This section of the dialog demonstrates how a color scheme applies to a sample selection of widgets. A color scheme consists of a set of ten colors. These colors apply to the :-

1. Inactive title bar background

2. Inactive title bar text

3. Active title bar background

4. Active title bar text

5. General background

6. General foreground

7. Selection background

8. Selection text

9. Window background

10. Window text

Labels on the sample widgets will help you identify where these colors apply.

The colors are grouped into 5 foreground / background pairs. Thus, good contrast between the foreground and background colors of widgets can be ensured at all times.

When you press Ok or Apply the color scheme you have selected will be written to the desktop configuration.

Note: Pressing Ok or Apply applies changes made in all of the display setup modules.

There are some problems in the Qt toolkit when changing the colors in a running application, particularly with lists and combo boxes. These elements will not be displayed properly until the applications are restarted. Hopefully these problems will be fixed in a future release of Qt.

### Widget Color

The currently selected member of the color scheme is shown in the combo box of the Widget Color group. This can be changed by clicking on the colored box. A color selection dialog will then appear, from which you may select a new color. You may select any member of the color scheme from the color combination box.

When you are happy with your color selection, press Ok in the color selection dialog. The color will be updated in the Preview.

The Contrast slider allows you to change the contrast bewteen different shadings of the selected colors.

### Color schemes

Various color schemes are supplied with KDisplay. These include: KDE default, Atlas green BeOS, Blue slate, CDE, Desert red, Digital CDE, Pale gray, Pumpkin, Solaris CDE, Storm, and Windows 95. To preview a scheme click on its name in the list box.

You can use the KDE-supplied Color Schemes as a starting point to devise your own Scheme. Click on the Add button to store the color scheme from the Preview under a new name, then modify it. When such a user-created Color Scheme is selected, changes to it (as shown in the Preview) can be saved with the Save Changes button; it can also be deleted with the Remove button.

The KDE-supplied Schemes themselves cannot be changed or deleted.

## Fonts

You may change the font and character set for the desktop. These fonts will be used by KDE applications, and (depending on the choice in the Style settings) by selected non-KDE applications.

(This option has only recently been enabled in all KDE applications, therefore some applications may not behave correctly when their fonts are changed, or if a large font is used, and you may have to restart KDE for the changes to take effect.)

Click on a Font category in the main list to select it (This lists various categories of KDE functions for which a font must be defined: General font, Fixed font, etc.).

For each category, select a Typeface from the list, optionally choose Bold or Italic, and select the typeface size by clicking on "+" or "-" buttons at the right of the Size box. You may also choose the Character Set for this font (the choices available depend on the Typeface chosen). The choices `default` and `any` are always available. (The Default Character Set is configured in the File Manager Font menu).

The font you have selected is previewed in the Sample text box.

To restore the KDE default configuration, click on the Default button at the bottom of the screen. Click on Apply or OK to activate your choice.

Note: Pressing Ok or Apply applies changes made in all of the display setup modules.

## Style

The Style dialog allows three Desktop style choices to be made:

- Draw widgets in the style of Windows 95. This allows This allows you to switch between a Motif look or a Windows 95 look for the K Desktop Environment. For example, the widget that lets these choices be made is a button in Motif style, and a check box in Windows 95 style.

- Menubar on top of the screen in the style of MacOS. This selection emulates the MacOS style by placing a menubar for the currently-active application at the top of the screen.

- Apply fonts and colors to non-KDE apps. Selecting this option allows the "look and feel" of KDE applications (mainly fonts and colors) to also be applied to certain non-KDE X11 applications such as Emacs and XEmacs. This feature uses `krdb`, KDE's interface to `xrdb`, the X-resources database. If this causes you to experience problems with your non-KDE applications, you should make sure that the Desktop Font settings (especially the Fixed font for emacs) are correctly set (you may need to change these settings at least once so entries in your `˜/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals` file are generated). Changes you make, including de-activating this selection, may not take effect until KDE is restarted.

To restore the KDE default configuration, click on the Default button at the bottom of the screen. Click on Apply or OK to activate your choice.

Note: Pressing Ok or Apply applies changes made in all of the display setup modules.

## Questions and answers